The present invention relates to unmanned vehicles, and more particularly to unmanned surface vehicles (USV) designed for use in rough or calm bodies of water.
Unmanned air, ground and underwater vehicles have been developed that perform numerous tasks and have proven extremely useful. However, USVs have not been developed to the same extent.
Littoral areas of operation may be denied, inaccessible or too hazardous to operate in with manned ships. Properly designed USVs could make these areas accessible for operation. No multimission USV has been developed that can operate for extended periods of time, in different sea conditions with numerous types of payloads and sensors. The applicants have developed a novel USV system that has the built in flexibility to perform multiple missions for extended periods of time such as mine countermeasure, anti-submarine warfare, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.